Empire Records Taught Me 14 Things About The ’90s

Emerald Pellot

Empire Recordsis a 1995 film about a group of young people who work at an independent record store calledEmpire Records. When an employee, Lucas, finds out that the store is getting turned into a Music Town franchise he steals all of the store’s cash, goes to Atlantic City to gamble his way into a profit but only ends up losing it all. While the larger plot is about screwing the corporate man who wants to buy out small businesses and homogenize the world of music, what it’s actually about is a group of young friends navigating life and adolescence.

The film starred Ethan Embry, Robin Tunney, Renee Zellwegger and Liv Tyler. Empire Records is to the ’90s as The Breakfast Clubis to the ’80s, one of those quintessential films of the decade that accurately captured the youth and culture of the time. Watch the two films back to back and you’ll see just how much of an impact grunge had on youth culture.

Over the weekend Ethan Embry tweeted an Empire Records reunion photo featuring him and his male cast members. Oh how time changes things.